Sunday, October 28, 2007
Editorial: Send Breiner to the Senate
The Democrat offers an alternative to a former Roanoke mayor whose anti-tax ideology is incompatible with sound governance.
From the RoundTable blog
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An open seat in Virginia's sprawling 22nd Senate District is up for grabs between two newcomers for state elective office, but that doesn't mean the candidates are completely unknown.
Republican Ralph Smith, who ousted incumbent Brandon Bell in their party's primary, was Roanoke's mayor from 2000 to 2004. Smith made enough waves in the heavily Democratic city that he enjoys some name recognition throughout a district that covers parts of Roanoke and Montgomery counties, Radford and all of Botetourt County.
Smith's record leads us to endorse his opponent, Democrat Michael Breiner -- but not for the lame reasons given in Breiner's negative campaign ads and brochures. The series of mudslinging cheap shots should shame Breiner.
As mayor, Smith made it clear he was of that branch of the Republican Party that holds to one fundamental principle: taxes are evil. All else flows from that.
As the state's Rube Goldbergesque transportation funding legislation made abundantly clear this year, mindless adherence to this principle is a lousy way to govern. It allows no reasonable case to be made for a flat-out, unadorned tax increase, no matter how evident the need or dire the long-term consequences of failing to act.
This is the GOP brand that dominates Virginia's House of Delegates. Its impact has been leavened, to this point, by a Republican-controlled Senate led by old-school conservatives of the fiscally responsible kind. With the retirements of such party stalwarts as John Chichester, Charles Hawkins and Russell Potts, though, the sober, steadying character of the Senate could change.
Smith's election would further such a change, to the detriment of the commonwealth.
His term as mayor produced this small, but telling, example of misguided principles: In 2002, the General Assembly killed a bill that would have let Roanoke charge a higher admissions tax at city-owned facilities than at private entertainment venues. Lawmakers denied the city that authority at the behest of Smith, who worked his political connections with House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith.
Here's the foolish twist: The narrowly tailored increase was intended to pay for renovating the Roanoke Civic Center -- a project Smith had voted for, knowing that a higher levy was a possible means to pay for it.
In the end, Roanoke was forced to use the broad authority Richmond had left to it, and raised the admissions tax citywide.
Such political shenanigans left Smith marginalized and frustrated on city council, and he did not run again.
Smith's term as mayor was not an unmitigated disaster. He rightly claims some leadership in advancing regional cooperation, including a regional water authority -- an important achievement. But his anti-tax dogmatism was damaging then, and would be damaging on the state stage, as well.
Democrat Breiner, a Roanoke County plastic surgeon, is a brash candidate and a political neophyte whose ideas haven't been burnished by the rough and tumble of policymaking. He has no public record; Smith does. We cast our lot with Breiner and hope he matures quickly.
